Before reporting on yesterday’s game against St. Mirren, I’d like to mention an odd event which I just happened to see yesterday morning in the TV coverage of the Olympic Taekwondo competition from Beijing. (I know absolutely nothing about Taekwondo – so apologies to any of you who do!!)
Britain’s Sarah Stevenson was fighting a Chinese girl in a quarter-final bout. Naturally the majority of the crowd were cheering for their local hero. Their girl won 2-1, and the local fans were looking forward to her appearing in the semi-final.
However it transpired that Stevenson had made a valid kick to the head (!) which the judges had chosen to ignore. This would have given her another two points to win the match – the equivalent of Hearts having a perfectly good winning goal disallowed at Ibrox or Parkhead!.
Britain put in an appeal, which caused the judges and officials a huge dilemna – the TV replay was conclusive in showing that the British girl should have been awarded the two points, but the prospect of actually reversing the outcome of the match in front of thousands of locals clearly worried them. After almost an hour, the decision to award the match to Stevenson was made to the media – but NOT to the audience, who were still expecting their girl to appear in the upcoming semi-final. Finally, the announcement was made, followed by the appearance of security police into the arena in case things turned nasty. After a minute or so of booing, things settled down, and the British girl was able to take part in her semi-final.
Throughout this saga, the BBC commentators referred to their relief that the ‘integrity’ of the sport had been upheld by the decision to reverse the result of the match on the basis of undisputable TV evidence, and I couldn’t help thinking about the sorry state of professional football in the SPL due to some downright bad refereeing decisions. The prospect of TV evidence being used during a match at Ibrox or Parkhead in front of 50,000 to award a previously disallowed Hearts goal (which might deny the home team some points) now seems even more unlikely to me.
Incidentally, Stevenson lost her semi-final, but ended up with a Bronze medal.
Anyway, back to the game…..
Hearts maintained their 100% home record by defeating St. Mirren 2-1 in a game which they ought to have won by the proverbial country mile.
I have seldom seen Hearts dominate possession as much as they did for about 70 minutes yesterday. St. Mirren had to play three-quarters of the game with 10 men, after Tonet Gueraro received two bookings in rapid succession (the sending-off seemed a trifle harsh to me).
Some fine first-half Hearts moves resulted in visiting keeper Howard making fine saves from Mole, Driver, Kingston and Wallace before Mole scored with a 25-yard shot just seconds before half-time.
Hearts’ domination continued for most of the second half, with Driver, Kingston, Cesnauskas and Nade all managing NOT to score with good chances. New keeper Kello had almost nothing to deal with until he picked the ball out the Roseburn goal at St. Mirren’s equaliser. A free-kick caused some uncertainty in the Hearts defence, and newcomer Obua was at fault for not being aware of a lurking attacker beyond the far post who returned the ball into the middle for ‘battering ram’ Mehmet to tap it in.
Just as the ‘here we go again’ thoughts were entering our heads, Driver was fouled in the penalty box, and Michael Stewart scored with a penalty which visiting keeper Howard got a hand to.
A few minutes later, Ksanavicius was fouled in the box, but this time Stewarts identical (and rather weak) penalty was saved by Howard.
We then had to endure the usual nail-biting last few minutes, and watch with horror as St. Mirren almost snatched the equaliser when Mehmet bulleted a header from six yards just past the post.
New goalkeeper Marian Kello had no shot-stopping to deal with, but came for a few crosses and long balls confidently. He seems to like the ball at his feet when kicking rather than kicking from hand, and at times seemed reluctant to pick the ball up. However he used his defenders quite well to start moves.
New Ugandan international David Obua certainly caught my eye with a very assured debut, looking very comfortable on the ball in midfield, until he moved to left back later in the game when Lee Wallace was replaced. His tackling and distribution were also pretty good, and his only mistake was to ‘lose’ an attacker at St.Mirren’s goal.
Laryea Kingston played a more central attacking role today instead of hugging the right touchline, forcing him to become more involved in the game (which was a good thing). However his many skilful moments were cancelled out by some poor passing, and I can’t help feeling Hearts are not getting full value for money out of this guy. However his overall contribution today was better than against Motherwell, so maybe this switch shows some shrewd judgement from Csaba Laszlo.
For me, all the players did well today, but perhaps Stewart, Thomson, Mole and Obua were the pick of them.
With tricky away games coming up against Falkirk and Inverness, it’s good to see Hearts sitting with a creditable six points after three games in a league where no team has a 100% points tally.
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I thought the referee really spoiled the game. Broke it up too often by making a meal out of things. Red card very harsh and only made it tougher for him to remain consistent throughout.
Yes, some wierd decisions from the man in …. err.. fluorescent yellow !! Is it just me, or do these yellow strips seem even brighter this season ? Wierd comment too from Billy Mehmet, claiming his side deserved a point due to the hard work they put in. All the stats indicate Hearts were well on top – possession, corners, shots on goal etc, but it seems he only remembers the last 20 minutes (and even then Hearts should have had 3 goals in that period too !!)
Yeah as you said, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Hearts with more possession in a game – just a pity they couldn’t be slightly more productive with it. As for Mehmet, the description of “fouling machine” isn’t too far off the mark is it?
I enjoyed the match and it’s the best performance for a good while. In need of another striker? – absolutely (in addition to Tullberg) but given last season I’m happy to accept small incremental progression. I though the team showed a maturity and confidence in being happy to hold onto the ball rather than just hoof it up the park which made it quite frustrating when some folk near me were booing a pass back to the keeper!! I was also impressed at the interaction between Stewart/Wallace/Obua in the first half when they seemed willing to go into each others position and – a key point for me – cover for the others in their position. I was happy with pretty much all performances and what appears to be a steady and controlled approach by the players. We need to improve but definite moves in the right direction.